1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a test specification generation system, and more particularly to a test specification generation system which is capable of generating a test specification required for testing an application program in development of a computer software system, based on design information of the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The development process of a business software system includes a design process, a production process, and a testing process.
In the design process, client's demands of a system to be developed are analyzed, and elements of the system that can be systematized are determined to generate a design specification of the system. In the design process, a CASE (computer-aided software engineering) tool is utilized. In the production process, programming of an application program implementing the system is carried out according to the design specification generated in the design process, and in the testing process, it is checked whether the application program operates as intended in the design specification. A test specification is a document prepared to specify indexes/instructions for testing the application program.
In development of business software systems, the testing process is no less essential than the design process and the production process, and increasing importance is attached to the testing process to ensure further improved quality and reliability of the system. In this context, automatization of the testing process is contemplated. If the testing process is automatized to a certain extent, it is possible to further enhance productivity of the system development process. Today, there exist testing tools which are capable of providing such a testing environment that will contribute to automization of the testing process. A typical known testing tool of this kind, for instance, is "SQA suite (registered trademark of SQA Inc. in the United States)".
This tool manages a whole sequence of software testing processes from test planning/design to generation of a report on test results. To manage the whole test sequence, it is necessary to input test information required for the management into the tool at the outset. The test information includes a test plan, test items, and so forth. These test information items are stored in a database where they are under single point management as information necessary for operations in the testing process. The test specification is generated based on the test information.
As described above, in the testing process, it is always required to enter test information items to generate a test specification. On the other hand, so long as the CASE tool is used in the design process, the design information is under single point management in a design information repository. The design information, which is entered in the design process, includes items of test information, such as test items, which are referred to in the testing process, as well. This means that the same kind of information that is entered in the design process is entered again in the testing process, which results in degradation of operational efficiency and productivity of the software development process.